Just a year after his debut in the MCU, Brian Tyree Henry’s Hollywood career is on the fast track. After portraying the Eternal Phastos (who also happens to be one-half of the first gay couple to be featured in an MCU film) in Chloé Zhao’s Eternals, the actor has gone on to do a variety of projects in both television and film.Not to mention, Henry has recently starred alongside several A-listers too. And even better, this Emmy nominee continues to be on a roll.
Eternals Helped Brian Tyree Henry After He ‘Kind Of Lost Faith In Humanity’
Now, Henry had been acting long before, having been recognized for films such as Widows, Hotel Artemis, and If Beale Street Could Talk. He also picked up Emmy nominations for his role in Atlanta and his guest role in the drama This Is Us. But it almost seems that working on Eternals got the actor his groove back.
“I remember when I was coming to this project that I, Brian, had kind of lost faith in humanity, just looking at all the things that we’ve been through and just what the images of Black men were and how we’re being portrayed and how the power was taken from us, the lack of power or feeling powerful,” Henry admitted.
But then, when he was asked to play Phastos, the actor saw a character “still chose love” despite everything happening in the movie. “It just really resonated a lot with how I felt my place in society was. How we can be kings and queens, and at the same time, they’ll take our pedestal and take our superpowers from us like that,” the actor continued.
“So what I love the most about Eternals is that Chloe and [producer] Nate [Moore] just re-instilled that power back in me again.”
After Eternals, He Starred In The Action Flick Bullet Train, Which Is ‘Its Own Form Of Therapy’
Following his intergalactic adventures on Eternals, Henry went on to work with Brad Pitt, Joey King, and fellow Marvel alum Aaron Taylor-Johnson on David Leitch’s Bullet Train. Amidst all the high-action stunts they had to pull off though, it just didn’t feel like a job at all.
“The relationships that were made and fostered on this movie was unlike anything ever,” the actor said. “It really wasn’t work; it was its own form of therapy.”
In the movie, Henry and Taylor-Johnson play “The Twins” Lemon and Tangerine respectively. And while the two stars have never worked together before, they just had the best time doing improv throughout a lot of their scenes.
“We forgot to stick to the script. Dave is just sitting there, like ‘Yeah, you guys are definitely twins,’” Henry recalled. “We did so much improvising in this movie, and David, bless his heart, kept most of it in. We just would get together and riff off one another.”
The co-stars also became incredibly close friends on set, so much so that for Henry, Taylor-Johnson has become “truly my family.”
Brian Tyree Henry Also Stars Opposite Jennifer Lawrence In This Upcoming Apple TV+ Drama
Aside from Bullet Train, Henry also worked with the Oscar winner on the upcoming Apple TV+ film Causeway. The film focuses on Lawrence’s character, a U.S. soldier named Lynsey who is struggling to adjust to life back home after she sustained a traumatic brain injury while fighting in Afghanistan.
In the movie, Henry plays James Aucoin, a worker at an auto repair shop that Lawrence’s character forms a bond with. First-time film director Lila Neugebauer had always known that Henry was perfect for the part ever since they met while attending Yale.
“The scope of Brian’s range, his remarkable ability with language, his creative imagination, his depth of spirit, his magnetism—that has been apparent to me for a very long time,” Neugebauer said of the star. As for Henry, he signed on to the project immediately. “I absolutely jumped on it the minute that I saw it was her.”
Meanwhile, as he delved deeper into the role, he also insisted that his and Lawrence’s character should not get romantic. “I’m always really conscious of what the relationships look like when you have a Black man and a white woman in this society,” he explained.
Instead, they worked on showing how the friendship between the two would develop and become stronger over time. “There’s something about when somebody sees another person for who they truly are because of what they’ve lost,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Henry also has several other projects in the works, starting with the animated sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse where he will reprise his role as Miles Morales’ father, Jefferson Davis. The actor also stars in the upcoming biopic Flint Strong and the upcoming action-adventure sequel Godzilla vs. Kong 2.
By now, fans may also be wondering if Henry would be reprising Phastos in the MCU soon. For now, Marvel is yet to comment on the return of the character or a possible sequel to Eternals (although Patton Oswalt, who appeared in the post-credit sequence, claimed that a sequel is happening).
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